created
our manufactures, filled our warehouses, crossed our oceans, healed
our diseases, and reared the fabric of law and government.

And God, who has made the intellect the source of delight to the
individual, and of good to society here, will surely perfect it
hereafter. Whatever its capacity may be, it shall then be filled to
its utmost limit; and be characterised by a clearness, vigour, and
precision, unknown here to the greatest thinkers. All barriers to its
progress shall be removed, which were occasioned here by the mortal
body, the poor culture, the little time, the few opportunities, the
weak or sinful prejudices; so that the poorest saint will shine there
as the sun in its strength! And with this increased power of knowing,
how inconceivably increased must be our sources of knowledge; how
boundless is the field which supplies them; how inexhaustible the
treasures it contains; how unlimited the time for gathering them;
how helpful the society that will sympathise with and join in our
pursuits! No one surely imagines that on entering heaven we can at
once obtain perfect knowledge--perfect, I mean, not in the sense of
accuracy, but of fully possessing all that can be known. This is
possible for Deity only. For it may be asserted with confidence that
Gabriel knows more to-day than he knew yesterday. Nor is it difficult
for us to conceive how, throughout eternity, and revelling with
freedom throughout God's universe, we may be occupied by the
contemplation of new and endless displays of the inexhaustible wisdom
and power of God in His works; and see more and more into the life of
all things; and continually read new volumes of that great book of
nature and of truth, whose first letters we are now learning with
difficulty to spell. And could we ever succeed in gathering together
the present treasures of all worlds, why may not new and varied
creations for ever renew the universe, and grander displays be made of
the glory and majesty of the Creator? Besides all this, must not the
_ways_ of God, as well as His works, and the wonders of His moral
government, extending over all His creatures, and over all worlds,
and throughout all ages, afford inexhaustible subjects wherewith to
exercise the intellect of man? Is not every truth, too, with which we
are already acquainted linked to another and a higher truth? And if
so, when shall we reach the end of that awful chain which is in the
hand of God? But though for ever w